The NIA Special Court in Bengaluru has sentenced an individual to six years of simple imprisonment in connection with a 2018 fake currency seizure case, according to a statement by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
The convicted, Sariful Islam, also known as Sarifulla or Sharifuddin, hailing from West Bengal, has been fined Rs. 5,000. He is the seventh person to be convicted in the case identified as RC-12/2018/NIA/DLI, also known as the Chikodi FICN Case.
NIA investigations uncovered that Sariful Islam conspired with six others to traffic 41 Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICNs) with a face value of Rs. 82,000 from the Bangladesh border to various parts of India. He fraudulently obtained a SIM card to coordinate with his co-conspirators for procuring the counterfeit notes from West Bengal and distributing them across the country.
Further investigations revealed that Islam had previously delivered FICNs worth Rs. 10.30 lakh to the main convict, Dalim Mia, in West Bengal. The conspiracy aimed to destabilize India’s monetary system and economic security.
The NIA continues its investigation into the involvement of two Bangladeshi nationals who supplied the FICNs to the accused. So far, the agency has filed three chargesheets in this case.
In a separate operation, the NIA recently conducted search operations at seven locations in Bihar’s Kaimur and Rohtas districts as part of a crackdown on CPI (Maoist) activities. The raids, which targeted associates of key CPI (Maoist) leaders Vijay Kumar Arya and Umesh Chaudhary, resulted in the seizure of incriminating digital devices, documents, and live ammunition. These leaders were apprehended by the NIA in April 2022.